ABBEVILLE – An Anderson man will serve 35 years in prison after entering a guilty plea to a murder that happened a decade ago.
Trey Chavez Brown, 41, will serve 30 years for murder and five years for possession of a weapon during commission of a violent crime according to the Eighth Circuit Solicitor. Brown was charged in the shooting death of James Keith Kennedy in 2006.
The solicitor says Brown went to Kennedy’s home in Abbeville to find his estranged wife. That’s where Brown shot him several times.
The victim was able to get to a neighbor’s home and identify Brown as the shooter before collapsing. Kennedy died while on the way to a hospital.
Brown surrendered to the Aiken County Sheriff’s Office 12 hours after the shooting. He did not face a trial for several years.
Brown was ruled as “not competent to stand trial” by a circuit court judge in 2009 for a diagnosed mental illness. He remained in the care of the Department of Mental Health until Brown was considered no longer in need of inpatient care in 2013.
The Eighth Circuit Solicitor decided to indict Brown again for the killing after that release. Brown pleaded guilty to the crimes on Monday, the same day his jury trial was scheduled to begin in Abbeville.
